She was at it again... We played cards and I lost incredibly... again. Seriously, Dixie Lou Marie Pennigton is cramping my style.

Just so you know, we play a weird card game. You place four cards down, then four cards up, then deal out nine for the hand. The 10 'kills' the pile, the 2 resets the pile. You simply start placing cards down trying to rid your hand and the stacks dealt up and down. Its fun, but Dixie never lets me win.

It is no secret Milo doesn't care for Dixie... No bonding going on at my house... She steals his bones... Takes away bits if grilled chicken which would normally be his.. Grabs prime lap space... Takes his covers... Takes my attention from his belly rubs... But every now and again he likes her... Especially since she can reach his ears :)

Now don't be all impressed... I have a very lovely accountant who I send endless emails of poorly fashioned spreadsheets, boxes of greasy receipts, crumpled bits of paper with phone numbers and addresses, pictures of the mileage on my car.. Ok, so I exaggerated a wee bit. But, honestly its been a (not) joy getting my taxes together this year.

Results? (Remember this is for regular paycheck taxes plus my business Penned Design):

Refund $699 (I think she said) Federal (which is going toward the estimates for my quarterly business taxes June and September, 2012, but I paid $300 for first quarter April, 2012)Owe $317 KY (which sucks...and will necessitate an adjustment in paying more 2012 to make sure I do not pay next year) and added to it a $80 check for First Quarter 2012Owe nothing to City or Fayette County Schools... :) which is fantastic.

I'm off to Elizabethtown to prepare for the coming weekend. Oh, wondering about my little furbabies? Milo and Dixie are ensconced in my bed, keeping the home safe from dust bunnies and lint... they excel at their home based business, Dachshund Security are Us!

Mom must have been on some kinda psychotic, uhm, psychic wavelength with Frankie and Ernie's mom last night. Cause here we are, in the dreaded bathtub, getting all the good smells taken off and replaced by Oatmeal smells. OATMEAL?!?! How can we be respected members of the dachshund community when we smell like breakfast?!?! >_< You know those Moms.... just can't understand them.

(Shelle note: Dixie is the copper color and Milo is the black and tan... for some information how they came to be in our family, check out their Gotcha Page).

Frankie and Ernie's mom was so sweet to say really nice things about us (and the Dachshund Cleanliness OCD Queen, our mom). We guess its best we did put on our best furs last night so we can say "Howdy" today. Although, we're pretty sure you'd rather smell some of the good smells we have on our little farm here in Kentucky. They are reallyyy good smells... dead stuff, poop from foxes, bunny fluffy fur smells, fresh tilled ground smells... ahhh, its heavenly!! :) Next time, hopefully, we can have scratch and sniff pictures for you!

Well, here is the welcome mat.... :) Sit and stay a while... :) And, remember... we're southern, so if you sit and stay long enough, we'll feed you, too! :D

This might look like the face of an angel, but this is the face of a jinx. Jinx, I tell you. J I N X. Lemme explain why...

We like to play games at our house. Xbox, PS3, Board games, card games, word games, memory games, anything, heck we even have a parcel of games you can play just in the car.... Game play was something I did as a kid, and now am passing along the love of playing games (whether electronic or tabletop) to my kid.

But, Miss Dixie... well, she is cramping my style. When its warm, we sit out on the screened in porch and enjoy our game time. Dixie has found that I am the perfect lap for snuggling, especially if I wrap her up in her favorite blanket. The moment Miss Dixie Doodle sits in my lap, I begin losing. Every. Single. Time.

Its getting annoying... not that I'm uber competitive or anything... But jeez.

And, through it all, she looks just like the picture above. Guess, I'm pretty lucky anyway, eh?

Ok, so it wasn't really that stormy, but Milo will use any excuse to snuggle down under the cover. Lucky for him he doesn't have to sleep outside on top of a doghouse like Snoopy... Though it would be totally fine with me if he could type out a novel!